--- description: Like many self-made millionaires, Buffett started early in his life. title: These Were Warren Buffett’s First Jobs image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf668ad998f786639/698870492dce01a9149e6685/warren-buffett-fortune-most-powerful-women-mpw.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Careers & Workplace](/tag/careers-workplace/) ## Careers & Workplace Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # These Were Warren Buffett’s First Jobs by [Drake Baer / Business Insider](/author/business-insider/) ## Drake Baer / Business Insider Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 11, 2015 7:56 PM CUT  Warren Buffett speaks onstage during Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 13, 2015. Warren Buffett speaks onstage during Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 13, 2015.Paul Morigi—Getty Images for Fortune/Time Inc by [Drake Baer / Business Insider](/author/business-insider/) ## Drake Baer / Business Insider Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 11, 2015 7:56 PM CUT Warren Buffett — [now worth more than $71 billion](http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-career-advice-2014-10 "undefined") — has had a hunger for wealth since he was a tube-socked teenager. Through numerous schemes, the would-be Oracle of Omaha amassed the equivalent of $53,000 by the time he was 16, enough money that [he nearly refused his father’s request to go to college, because he didn’t see the point.](http://www.newrepublic.com/article/books-and-arts/the-master-money "undefined") By looking through Alice Schroeder’s biography, [_The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life_](http://www.amazon.com/The-Snowball-Warren-Buffett-Business/dp/0553384619?tag=timecom-20 "undefined")_,_ we can see that Buffett has always had a gift for manipulating money — and people. Here are a half-dozen of his early hustles. **He delivered The Washington** **_Post_** Buffett’s father, Howard, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives when Buffett was a teen, and the family had to move from Omaha to the nation’s capital. As Schroeder notes, the young Buffett immediately set to work making money with the most traditional of hustles — dutifully delivering newspapers. But by handing out the _Post_, Buffett was making more money than most grown-ups. “Just from pitching newspapers a couple hours a day, he was earning $175 a month, more money than his teachers,” she writes. He also sold calendars to his newspaper clients, bringing in a little extra. **He sold used golf balls** If you wanted to get a golf ball on the cheap back in the 1940s, you could do worse than buying Buffett’s at $6 for a dozen. Buffett’s friends and family thought he scooped the balls out of water traps, but the young entrepreneur got them by ordering from a provider in Chicago. “They were classy balls,” [Buffett told Schroeder](http://books.google.com/books?id=tU%5FCAUXWpCsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=snowball+buffett&hl=en&sa=X&ei=lZpiVKO1K-XnsAS85YC4Aw&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=sawyer&f=false "undefined"). “Titleist and Spalding Dots and Maxlis, which I bought for three and a half bucks a dozen. They looked brand new. He probably got them the way we first tried to get them, out of water traps, only he was better.” **He sold stamps** If you needed a fancy stamp, you could turn to Buffett’s Approval Service, which sold collectible stamps to collectors around the country. **He buffed cars** The teenage Buffett partnered with his friend Lou Battistone to form Buffett’s Showroom Shine. The car-buffing business ran out of Battistone’s dad’s used car parking lot — though Schroeder [reports](http://books.google.com/books?id=tU%5FCAUXWpCsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=snowball+buffett&hl=en&sa=X&ei=lZpiVKO1K-XnsAS85YC4Aw&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=sawyer&f=false "undefined") that the duo abandoned the business when it turned out to be too much manual labor. **He set up a pinball machine business** When Buffett was 17 he had his biggest money-making idea: pinball. He made [the following pitch to his friend Don Danley](http://books.google.com/books?id=tU%5FCAUXWpCsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=snowball+buffett&hl=en&sa=X&ei=lZpiVKO1K-XnsAS85YC4Aw&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=snippet&q=I%20bought%20this%20old%20pinball%20machine&f=false "undefined"): --- > “” --- The pinball machine was a hit: Buffett counted $4 in nickels on the first evening. The pair soon set up pinballs in barbershops all over Washington. **And he turned the horse track into a very lucrative playground** When still in Omaha, the young Buffett found a bull market in the Ak-Sar-Ben arena, a horse-racing track that operated from 1919 to 1995. He and a friend would go to the race track, and though the duo was too young to make bets, Buffett quickly found a way to make money: by _stooping_, which was like [dumpster diving](http://www.businessinsider.com/dumpster-diving-in-brooklyn-photos-2014-10 "undefined") for race track tickets. Here’s Buffett’s [description](http://books.google.com/books?id=tU%5FCAUXWpCsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=snowball+buffett&hl=en&sa=X&ei=lZpiVKO1K-XnsAS85YC4Aw&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=snippet&q=I%20bought%20this%20old%20pinball%20machine&f=false "undefined"): --- > “” --- And if the boys found any winning tickets, Buffett’s aunt Alice would cash them in for the boys. Buffett went a step further: using his love of math and of collecting information, he and a friend put together a tip sheet for bettors at the race track. Soon they were out hawking “Stable Boy Selections,” a tip sheet that the boys typed out on an old Royal typewriter in Buffett’s basement. “We were in the track, yelling, ‘Get your Stable-Boy Selections!'” Buffett tells Schroeder. “At 25 cents, we were a cut-rate product. They shut down Stable-Boy selections fast because they were getting a cut on everything sold in the place except for us.” [Like other self-made billionaires](http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-richard-branson-billionaires-big-break-2014-8?op=1 "undefined"), Buffett started early. _This_ [_article_](http://www.businessinsider.com/how-a-young-warren-buffett-made-money-2014-11 "undefined") _originally appeared on_ [_Business Insider_](http://www.businessinsider.com "undefined") _More from Business Insider:_ * [How rich Warren Buffett was at your age](http://www.businessinsider.com/how-rich-warren-buffett-was-at-your-age-2015-8 "undefined") * [22 mind-blowing facts about Warren Buffett and his wealth](http://www.businessinsider.com/facts-about-warren-buffett-2015-9 "undefined") * [15 quotes from Warren Buffett that take you inside the mind of a legendary investor](http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffetts-greatest-quotes-2015-10 "undefined") * [18 books billionaire Warren Buffett thinks everyone should read](http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-favorite-books-2015-10 "undefined") * [How Warren Buffett chooses a great stock, in 4 steps](http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-investing-rules-2015-6 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4106414/warren-buffett-first-jobs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4106414/warren-buffett-first-jobs/"},"headline":"These Were Warren Buffett’s First Jobs","datePublished":"2015-11-11T19:56:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:29:03.027Z","description":"From selling stamps to delivering the newspaper","url":"https://time.com/4106414/warren-buffett-first-jobs/","keywords":["Careers & Workplace","Warren Buffett","Success topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf668ad998f786639/698870492dce01a9149e6685/warren-buffett-fortune-most-powerful-women-mpw.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Drake Baer / Business Insider"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf668ad998f786639/698870492dce01a9149e6685/warren-buffett-fortune-most-powerful-women-mpw.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Warren Buffett speaks onstage during Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 13, 2015.","caption":"Warren Buffett speaks onstage during Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 13, 2015.","creditText":"Paul Morigi—Getty Images for Fortune/Time Inc","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/careers-workplace/","name":"Careers & Workplace"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4106414/warren-buffett-first-jobs/","name":"These Were Warren Buffett’s First Jobs"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Watch: What You Need To Know About Personal Finance","description":"How the CEO of Learnvest, Alexa Von Tobel, raised her first $1 Million in 6 months","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/utKkX3lX/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-12-16T20:26:16.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/utKkX3lX.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4106414/warren-buffett-first-jobs/","duration":"PT2M31S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4106414/warren-buffett-first-jobs/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```